February 06, 2009

We're about a month away from the start of the second annual Philly Beer Week, and if you care about great beer and haven't yet made plans to visit, then it's time you got started. Because the 10 day event is more than just a beer fest, more than just a handful of educational tastings and way more than a beer dinner or three. It is, in fact, a virtual summation of all that's occurring in the beer market in America today.

Events? Beer Week's got 'em, to the tune of 317 and counting, including beer breakfasts, lunches and dinners, meet the brewer nights, special tasting sessions, educational efforts, themed Happy Hours, a full four (!) different beer festivals and even a Ladies Beer Tea. Participating brewers are flying in from across the country and around the world, and at least one beer writer will be in attendance, as well. (That would be me, folks.)

There's far too much happening for me to come even close to detailing it all here, so I suggest that you surf on over to the official website and then drop by official Philadelphia Tourism website to make your hotel booking. There may be other Beer Weeks proliferating across the country these days – San Francisco Beer Week kicks off today, in fact – but this is the definite granddaddy of them all!

November 07, 2008

If you live or work in California, chances are you’ve already heard of this. For the rest of you, listen up, because if The Marin Institute has its way, the next nickel could be your own.

What the Marin Institute is applauding, and promoting, is Gov. Schwarzenegger’s new nickel per drink tax on beer, wine and spirits, expected to raise more than $878 million over 2009 to “help reduce the state's budget shortfall while providing critical support to programs that reduce alcohol-related problems,” according to The Institute’s self-congratulatory press release.

That this self-styled “alcohol industry watchdog” is celebrating the new tax is no surprise, but the scary part is that they want to expand the base to include every state in the union. From a quick follow-up Marin Institute release:

"A nickel a drink -- It's the change we need to fix budgets around the nation," said Bruce Lee Livingston, executive director of Marin Institute, the California-based alcohol industry watchdog. "The largest states, such as New York and Florida can avoid cutting essential programs through long-overdue alcohol tax increases," Livingston added. California's proposal accomplishes exactly that.

Now, I’m not one of those no-tax loonies who thinks that we should all live in some sort of anarchic, self-reliant utopia – I believe that government provides much-needed social services for which we should all, as a community, pay. But that’s precisely my point: We should ALL pay. Not just you or me, not just the drinkers, not just the smokers; all of us.

The specious argument always trotted out by anti-alcohol forces like The Marin Institute is that the negative effects of alcohol create a social expense for which drinkers should pay, hence the reference to “alcohol-related problems” above. But obesity and pollution are also a financial drain on society, arguably much more so than drinking, so where are the fatty food and smog taxes? Why don’t we tax donuts and SUVs, for instance? Burgers and the charcoal-fired grills they’re cooked on? And so on.

I admit that some people abuse alcohol and in so doing become a drain on the system, or drink irresponsibly and cause accidents, property damage, personal injury or even death, but they are a small percentage of drinkers as compared to the rest of us. And I’ve yet to hear a convincing argument as to why I should pay for their mistakes, or you should help balance the state budget when your teetotalling neighbor gets a free ride.

November 03, 2008

As most aficionados of great beer will know, The Lost Abbey is a brewery producing some fairly extraordinary ales out of San Marcos, California. I’ve written about the operations beers before, as have many, many others, primarily in a favorable light. And that should be the beginning, middle and end of the story.

But thanks to an extremist pastor in Worthington, Minnesota, we now know that brewer/brewery owner Tomme Arthur isn’t just making tasty beer in southern California, he’s also doing the work of the devil. Don’t believe me? Listen to Rev. Jim Sickmeyer, Pastor of the Worthington Baptist Temple, as per his letter to the editor in the Daily Globe newspaper:

I’m sure that I, nor my Church that I pastor, are the only ones appalled by the recent article in the Globe entitled God & Beer (Thursday, October 23, 2008). The Lost Abbey, the featured business, may have been a hit at the Great American Beer Festival but that should have been all the notoriety that blasphemous business should have received. God says in His word that, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1 Then there is this verse as well, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest the bottle to him, and makest him drunken also...” Habakkuk 2:15.

I could go on with many more verses that show God’s attitude toward alcohol. Alcohol has destroyed more lives and ruined more marriages and families than most other issues. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, over 100,000 deaths occur each year due to alcohol. I’m sure God is not happy about that. Isn’t it amazing how alcohol brings out the hypocrisy in society? Many people want to have their beer gardens, liquor stores and so on, but when a loved one is killed by a drunk driver or themselves are drunk and cause an accident or end up dying from some other alcohol related issue, then all of the sudden, the situation changes and now they demand that something be done about it. Do we not call that situational ethics?

The Lost Abbey certainly lives up to its name in the spiritual sense. They are calling good, evil; and evil, good. They may have started as the article states, with their product “Damnation” and attempted to counter it with their product “Salvation” but neither or any of their products come even close to what those terms are really speaking to us about.

I appreciate the past articles that have been written in the Globe in the Religion section and the fairly unbiased approach. But printing this article on God & Beer was over the top and should not have happened as far as I’m concerned. I sincerely believe that I am not alone in my opinion on this and I welcome hearing from anyone who agrees or disagrees with me for that matter. As for the Lost Abbey, they may want to reevaluate and repent before it’s too late.

Strong words, indeed. And idiotic ones, as well, at least in this commentator’s view. The church hates alcohol? That’ll come as news to the fine men behind the seven Trappist monastery breweries in Belgium and the Netherlands, not to mention the Benedictines at Andechs and the brothers (and sisters – there is at least one brewing nunnery that I’m aware of) at other monastic breweries, and the monks behind such grand creations as Chartreuse and the méthose champenoise.
Still, other religious figures who embrace rather than condemn alcohol are only half the story. I’ll let Tomme Arthur explain the rest, in his rebuttal letter to the editor, published today:

This morning, I received a link to a letter written by the Rev. Jim Sickmeyer, a pastor at Worthington Baptist Temple, and published Worthington Daily Globe. It merits comments.

I am one of the owners and director of brewery operations for The Lost Abbey in San Marcos, Calif. We at the Lost Abbey would like to thank the Rev. Jim Sickmeyer for noting our business is rooted in blasphemy. Unfortunately, Reverend, our opinion of The Lost Abbey Brewery is seemingly more positive than your cursory review of our operations based on a newspaper article. But, we’re not here to make apologies for our myopia.

However, we at The Lost Abbey are in the business of producing “inspired beers for sinners and saints alike.” Like you, we believe our lives began under the doctrine of free will allowing us the opportunity to make choices for ourselves. We view the production of an alcoholic beverage is something worthy of our time and attention. And our God agrees with us.
In your letter, you have quoted scripture in numerous contexts. Each of these passages speaks not to the consumption of alcohol in moderation, only overindulgence. As members of the Brewers Association located in Boulder, Colo., we endorse and support their mantra, “Savor the Flavor Responsibly.” Certainly, excess consumption of any alcoholic beverage can lead to serious problems at home. However, to blithely state, “Alcohol has destroyed more lives and ruined more marriages and families than most other issues,” and then quote traffic statistics from the NTSB is non-sequitur at best.

Perhaps you hit the nail squarely on the head when you assert, “Isn’t it amazing how alcohol brings out the hypocrisy in society?” We couldn’t agree with you more, as your arguments invoke a seemingly intolerant God who blasts away from heaven at the drinkers below. While it may seem incredulous to you, our production of an alcoholic beverage is neither illegal nor illicit. As such, we will continue our morally repugnant practice of turning malted barley into beer. We at The Lost Abbey are operating a world class brewery and believe that using religious themes and contexts to frame our beers is neither blasphemous nor morally indignant.

I attended Catholic grade school and high school here in San Diego at St. Augustine High School. I have read my fair share of the Bible and understand the ethos of moderation and the spiritual importance of wine as it relates to Christian doctrines. From the first Miracle at Cana to the Last Supper, wine was a part of rituals and miracles. I’m not one to quote scripture as most blasphemers are apt to do. But as a sinner, I much prefer “a feast is made for laughter and wine makes us merry.” (Ecclesiastes 10:19)

October 20, 2008

Boy, I hate to say I told ya so, but...actually, I don’t really hate it... I sorta love it, to be honest.

If you are like me, you may be racking your brains to remember when the last time you heard good news was. The economy is tanked, I can’t bring myself to even look at my 401k, the world is melting down around us...I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all.

Actually, it’s all that plus the trifecta of having drama in my family and at work that has me down, so I may be a little more sensitive to the bad news that you may be, what with virtually everything I care about in a state of upheaval.

But the news IS bad. Our industry is down, foot traffic is down, sales are down, profits are down, people are getting laid off, restaurants that we practically grew up with, like Bennigan’s, are closing, Landry’s is on the table...Landrys!...and the unthinkable happened when InBev actually bought Anheuser-Busch! Did you ever think you’d see the day when THAT happened? Not me..

People I care about are freaking out because they are going to be casualties of all these mergers...people with families and mortgages and futures are losing their jobs in the 4th qtr, in an economy that just lost ANOTHER 700 points last week...and no one is hiring. Bye-bye health insurance, see ya security...you can’t even borrow from your home equity because a. no one is lending and b. HA!, good luck getting equity out of a house that is worth less than you owe for it!

This is really dire. And it’s taking us down.

It used to be that the bar business was considered ‘recession-proof’...paraphrasing a quote I read in Cheers magazine, when the economy is great, people drink. When the economy sucks, people drink. And so it is, but here’s the problem...or is it a benefit?

People ARE still drinking, but they are drinking down. Now, before anyone jumps all over me, I’m not quoting statistics; I’m talking about what I’m seeing in my own restaurtants.

My guests are trading down to cheap beer. We are actually seeing an increase in our beer percentage of sales, all of it attrition from both spirits and wine. And with our COGS being virtually the same as last year in the midst of some of the most egregious cost increases experienced in 2008, that, anecdotally, tells me that guest are drinking the cheap stuff. Sales and purchasing info bears that out.

So, is this good or bad? That depends on what point of view you are looking at it from.

Certainly, like all full-service restaurants, we carry a vast selection of fine spirits, interesting craft and imported beers and moderately priced wines. We want to sell these things. These offerings bring in good margins. But they are also fairly high in cost of goods. You can’t eat COGS, so we want these to sell and get that money in the till.

But, like it our not, we are generally judged in our performance within our companies on COGS.
The optimal scenario is low COGS with high margins. But if you can’t get the high margins because people are trading down, then let’s hope you can get profits up by going around through the back door and lowering your COGS so that more of whatever margin you get falls to the bottom line.

So in this case, with the trade down, we are at least getting a lower COG in the well and domestic macro boom going on right now...at least in our stores.

But that leaves us sitting on a lot of costly products that one must have in order to have a well-stocked bar. We have to keep the stuff around, but it’s not moving like it needs to. Oh, sure, we can brow-beat the staff into the aggressive upsell, but that’s not what they are doing. ‘They’ are us and they are suffering as much as anyone and, restaurant people being in the service industry, ipso facto, they want to serve the guest and the way they are doing it now is to point out the best ways to save money on a bill, against their best interests, since tips are based on total spend, but hoping that honesty will be rewarded by the saved money going into the server’s tip.

Not to mention that, as things slow down, like in any other industry, we are having to cut staff to save labor, resulting in the only way ‘trickle-down economics’ has ever actually worked...foot traffic is down, so we cut staff, so the staff has less time to sell to guests, resulting in less sales, requiring more cuts with less staff to sell...trickling down and spinning in circles all at the same time leaving us...well...screwed.

So, bottom line, we’re taking a huge hit in this economy, and that light at the end of the tunnel IS a train...things are going to get worse before they get better, I’m afraid.

So what do we do now?

Oh, you thought I had an answer here? Like some pontificating oracle, perhaps? A veritable Nostradamus, if you will?

Nope, I’m as flummoxed as you are as to what to do. I just presented my 2009 forecast and I’m PRAYING it’s only 6% inflation, after price events. Sadly, I think it will be more, not to mention that, even with gas prices dropping, we are still paying gas and delivery charges- charges that may go away on paper, but, once having that income, distributors will find a way to keep it, likely in increased broken case charges or just spread out into small across-the-board cost increases.

So, no answers here. You got any? If so, share them with me at Beverage.goddess@yahoo.com. I will compile them and post them here. C’mon now, we are all in this together...share what you are doing so that, together, we can ride this financial tsunami and come out the other side whole.

In the meantime, I will be doing what any self-respecting Beverage Goddess would do...drown my sorrows in my favorite beverage, which, at the moment, is arsenic. Cheers.

October 19, 2008

We walk into the bar, which appears to be relatively new and boasts a couple of dozen taps, some of which hold promise. We grab a table, only to notice that it’s positioned at the top of the staircase leading to the toilets, with all the the attendant aromas, and quickly decamp to the bar. A woman who appears to be a server would seem to have noticed us, but does nothing.

From our perch at the bar, we wait in vain for service. Time passes. Following much arm waving, Maggie finally draws the attention of the server, who nudges the woman beside her, who turns out to be the bartender. Despite there being only two other deuces in the bar, and the three to four minutes we took getting settled, the bartender claims she didn’t see us “sneak in.”

I ask if the Hacker-Pschorr on tap is lager or hefeweizen and she looks at me like I’ve just grown horns. Says she doesn’t know, but can give me a taste, after which she presents me with a foamy thimbleful of beer. I sniff and sip, discovering that it’s weizen, but old weizen. I opt instead for Headstrong Pale Ale.

Maggie asks for red vermouth and soda. More horns. She directs the bartender towards the bottle, slowly. “Right over there,” Maggie guides, “Behind the Stoli.” The bartender can’t even locate the vodka.

When she finally finds the Martini & Rossi, the bartender returns for a repeat of the instructions. “Ice, vermouth, soda water.” Away she goes, only to return a couple of minutes later with a pint glass – a pint glass!! – of vaguely rust-colored soda. My pint finally shows up a little after that, oxidized, but not so much so as the Hacker.

Cutting our losses, we ask for the bill and leave half our drinks. Maggie has been charged extra for the soda. We won’t be back.

Two blocks or so down the road, we enter another pub, a busier pub, and are greeted with a cheery hello the moment we cross the threshold. Here, we stayed.

October 13, 2008

In pouring the beer from the bottles, it is the bartender’s or waiter’s duty to select a proper and clean glass. All this applies with equal force to both domestic and imported beer. At the present time, bottled beer has become quite the fashion, and is consumed much more than in former years, especially in hotels, restaurants and private families. The proprietor of any place should buy all the best brands of bottled beer, as the consumer today demands quality and variety. In stocking up, you should see that not too great a quantity, or too much of any single brand is taken at one time, because the older bottled beer gets, the more it loses its flavor, unless it is the special brewed beer of the export trade. Bottled beer should never be kept more than from two to three weeks in the ice box, and in handling it it is proper to try to dispose first of the oldest lot on hand, in order to keep the quantity uniform. In opening the bottle, the bartender should be careful in pulling the cork and brush away any particles of it with a clean towel. Furthermore, bottled beer should be handled as carefully as wine and not in the careless, slipshod manner so many bartenders use.

That’s not me lecturing, but Harry Johnson from the facsimile of the 1900 edition of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Bartenders’ Manual and a Guide for Hotels and Restaurants, recently published by Mud Puddle Books. I’ll concede more than two to three weeks for bottled beer in the “icebox,” considering the styles and technologies at play today, but otherwise I am amazed at how valid today are Johnson’s words of more than a century ago.

October 09, 2008

My good friend Jay Brooks brought to my attention a now-two month old post over at the Very Good Taste blog. It’s a list of 100 food (and drinks) that the omnivore should strive to try at least once in his or her life, along with instructions on what to do once you’ve read and annotated it. I found it to be a fun exercise and in bolding my own list found several foods I very much do want to try some day, Piedmontese Bagna càuda rating very high on that list.

There’s not much more I can add to the instructions, so take it away Andrew...

Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

(Disclaimer: I cannot say I have never eaten a Big Mac - hey! I was young once, too! - but I can truthfully claim not to have ever had a "Big Mac Meal," which I assume is one of those things that comes with cookies on the side and some sort of plastic toy. Also, I can't be positive that I've had Tom Yum, but it does ring a bell from when I was in Bangkok a couple of years ago, and I doubt very much that I'll ever find myself eating Roadkill, but I left it uncrossed because you just never know.).

September 22, 2008

Yes, you read that right – Duvel on tap. Not the familiar 8.5% alcohol stuff in the stubby bottle, mind you, but a whole new beer entirely, to be known as Duvel Green.

This gets complicated, so please try and bear with me here. Making its debut tonight at Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia, and then again at the Beer Advocate Belgian Beer Fest in Boston this Saturday, and finally in general distribution in New York City in October, Duvel Green is a 6.8% golden ale said to be a bit paler than regular Duvel, obviously a bit weaker, and also less carbonated. It is not Duvel on draft nor is it intended to mimic either regular Duvel or the low alcohol Duvel Green available in Belgium. It is an entirely new creation.

The brewery has created a 250 ml glass for the new brand, illustrated here. (The “Duvel Draft” written on the side is a mistake; the final glass will read “Duvel Green.”)

After New York, the roll out is expected to reach Boston, DC and Philadelphia, likely in early ’09. I’ve no timetable for it, but apparently Duvel Green will also be hitting the U.K. sometime soon.

September 19, 2008

When I want to take the pulse of the on-premises premium beer trade, I talk to Keith Schlabs. Keith is the designated beer guy for the Flying Saucer chain of beer bars, which operate exclusively in the traditionally non-craft beer adventurous south – places like Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee.

So, I asked Keith over pints of Stone Pale Ale how things are shaping up in 2008. His response: Beyond good.

While not wanting to mention the “R” word or talk about such concepts as bullet-proof-ness, Keith still pointed to strong growth in almost all their markets, and hard times in none, while also mentioning the two new stores they opened in 2008, one in Kansas City and the other in Austin. Revenues are good, he said, sales are up double digits in many of their markets, and interest in domestic and imported craft beer – in which the Saucers deal almost exclusively – is ridiculously high.

So great is the company’s faith in beer, in fact, that they have a new concept they’re working on for a 2009 premier. Nothing has been finalized yet, so I can’t tell you the specifics, but it has to do with quality craft beer and it should serve as a breath of fresh air in the south.

So about that pulse? Well, if it’s still beating strong and sure in Nashville and Ft. Worth, then I figure it’s doing all right pretty much everywhere.